Marlow’s digression about Kurtz through his meeting
with the Russian trader.
Summary: Part 2
Marlow breaks into the narrative here to offer a digression
on Kurtz. He notes that Kurtz had a fiancée, his Intended (as Kurtz called
her), waiting for him in Europe. Marlow attaches no importance to
Kurtz’s fiancée, since, for him, women exist in an alternate fantasy
world. What Marlow does find significant about Kurtz’s Intended,
though, is the air of possession Kurtz assumed when speaking about
her: indeed, Kurtz spoke of everything—ivory, the Inner Station,
the river—as being innately his. It is this sense of dark mastery
that disturbs Marlow most. Marlow also mentions a report Kurtz has
written at the request of the International Society for the Suppression
of Savage Customs. The report is eloquent and powerful, if lacking
in practical suggestions. It concludes, however, with a handwritten
postscript: “Exterminate all the brutes!” Marlow suggests that this
coda, the “exposition of [Kurtz’s] method,” is the result of Kurtz’s
absorption into native life—that by the time he came to write this
note he had assumed a position of power with respect to the natives
and had been a participant in “unspeakable rites,” where sacrifices
had been made in his name. At this point, Marlow also reveals that
he feels he is responsible for the “care of [Kurtz’s] memory,” and
that he has no choice but to remember and continue to talk about
the man.
At the time Marlow is telling his story, he is still unsure
whether Kurtz was worth the lives lost on his behalf; thus, at this
point, he returns to his dead helmsman and the journey up the river.
Marlow blames the helmsman’s death on the man’s own lack of restraint: had
the helmsman not tried to fire at the men on the riverbank, he would
not have been killed. Marlow drags the helmsman’s body out of the
pilot-house and throws it overboard. The pilgrims are indignant that
the man will not receive a proper burial, and the cannibals seem
to mourn the loss of a potential meal. The pilgrims have concluded
Kurtz must be dead and the Inner Station destroyed, but they are
cheered at the crushing defeat they believe they dealt their unseen
attackers. Marlow remains skeptical and sarcastically congratulates
them on the amount of smoke they have managed to produce. Suddenly,
the Inner Station comes into view, somewhat decayed but still standing.
A white man, the Russian trader, beckons to them from
the shore. He wears a gaudy patchwork suit and babbles incessantly.
He is aware they have been attacked but tells them that everything
will now be okay. The manager and the pilgrims go up the hill to
retrieve Kurtz, while the Russian boards the ship to converse with
Marlow. He tells Marlow that the natives mean no harm (although
he is less than convincing on this point), and he confirms Marlow’s
theory that the ship’s whistle is the best means of defense, since
it will scare the natives off. He gives a brief account of himself:
he has been a merchant seaman and was outfitted by a Dutch trading
house to go into the African interior. Marlow gives him the book
on seamanship that had been left with the firewood, and the trader
is very happy to have it back. As it turns out, what Marlow had
thought were encoded notes are simply notes written in Russian.
The Russian trader tells Marlow that he has had trouble restraining
the natives, and he suggests that the steamer was attacked because
the natives do not want Kurtz to leave. The Russian also offers
yet another enigmatic picture of Kurtz. According to the trader,
one does not talk to Kurtz but listens to him. The trader credits
Kurtz for having “enlarged his mind.”
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Part 2 →
Analysis
The interruption and digression at the beginning of this
section suggests that Marlow has begun to feel the need to justify
his own conduct. Marlow speaks of his fascination with Kurtz as
something over which he has no control, as if Kurtz refuses to be
forgotten. This is one of a number of instances in which Marlow
suggests that a person’s responsibility for his actions is not clear-cut.
The Russian trader is another example of this: Marlow does not clarify
whether the trader follows Kurtz because of Kurtz’s charisma, or
because of the trader’s weakness or insanity.
Marlow repeatedly characterizes Kurtz as a
voice, suggesting that eloquence is his defining trait. But Kurtz’s
eloquence is empty. Moreover, the picture that Marlow paints of
Kurtz is extremely ironic. Both in Europe and in Africa, Kurtz is
reputed to be a great humanitarian. Whereas the other employees
of the Company only want to make a profit or to advance to a better position
within the Company, Kurtz embodies the ideals and fine sentiments
with which Europeans justified imperialism—particularly the idea
that Europeans brought light and civilization to savage peoples.
But when Marlow discovers him, Kurtz has become so ruthless and
rapacious that even the other managers are shocked. He refers to
the ivory as his own and sets himself up as a primitive god to the
natives. He has written a seventeen-page document on the suppression
of savage customs, to be disseminated in Europe, but his supposed
desire to “civilize” the natives is strikingly contradicted by his
postscript, “Exterminate all the brutes!” Marlow is careful to tell
his listeners that there was something wrong with Kurtz, some flaw
in his character that made him go insane in the isolation of the
Inner Station. But the obvious implication of Marlow’s story is
that the humanitarian ideals and sentiments justifying imperialism
are empty, and are merely rationalizations for exploitation and
extortion.
Marlow’s behavior in the face of an increasingly insane
situation demonstrates his refusal to give in to the forces of madness.
By throwing the dead helmsman overboard, Marlow spares him from becoming
dinner for the cannibals, but he also saves him from what the helmsman
might have found even worse: the hypocrisy of a Christian burial
by the pilgrims. In contrast with the pilgrims’ folly and hypocrisy,
Kurtz’s serene dictatorship is more attractive to Marlow. In fact,
as Marlow’s digression at the beginning of this section suggests,
right and wrong, sane and insane, are indistinguishable in this
world gone mad. Force of personality is the only means by which
men are judged. As Marlow’s ability to captivate his listeners with
his story suggests, charisma may be his link with Kurtz. What the
Russian trader says of Kurtz is true of Marlow too: he is a man to
whom people listen, not someone with whom they converse. Thus, the
darkness in Kurtz may repel Marlow mostly because it reflects his
own internal darkness.